Home-Buying For the Telecommuter – Part II
If you already read Part I of my “Home-Buying for the Telecommuter” article, you understand that telecommuting offers some additional flexibility for telecommuters choosing a new home. The challenge of finding a home in just the right location may become easier to deal with if you don’t have to worry about the length of your commute. However, you also learned that there are some new factors for telecommuters to consider that are less of a concern for the non-telecommuter.In Part I we talked about the first factor – space. Now we talk about the next factor:Network Access:If you plan to do a lot of your work over the internet, perhaps connected to your company’s internal intranet via a VPN (Virtual Private Network), it is critically important that you have a fast network in your house. Working on an ongoing basis, regularly communicating by email and Instant Messenger, sharing and exchanging large spreadsheets or other documents, simply isn’t feasible using a simple phone-based dialup connection. You need something fast.While there are a few good options out there to most people, not everything is available to everyone. For instance, your standard DSL connection is simply not available at all houses – even in an affluent area full of technological conveniences. Availability depends on how close you are to the nearest cell tower. You may not be able to get DSL at all. Or you may only be close enough to get the basic connection which is slower than the much faster “professional” connection.There are other options like a cable modem, which is also a good choice (it’s what I use today). However, you still need to make sure your new house has capabilities for this.So when you start looking, explain to your realtor understands the importance of this factor. And if you see a house you really like, enlist your realtor’s aid in finding out in detail which internet access options are available.Read Part III of this article (look for it on my author page) to learn about the final, and rather surprising, home-buying factor for telecommuters to consider!